How can it get any better than this? The Farmer’s Market!

Did you ever wake up and think you had a post scheduled and realize it’s not there? It’s still ‘all in your head’? haha! And of course it’s the day you need to get an early start.

So I’m on Plan B already today! But so far the day is proving a good one. I start every Thursday by driving over to the Farmer’s Market! I know I’ll find all kinds of wonderful fruits and veggies, all organic and incredibly fresh!

So how did it get better this week?

We have a new vendor that sells wonderful fresh baked bread!

The Flour Pot

And they have a loaf just for me…lots of whole grains and NO sugar! Thank you beautiful lady!

But what did I eat first? (I can only eat half so I have enough to share!)

Next I’ll slice the bread!

 

Lunch may be a little early today, come on over!

I’m joining Thankful Thursdays today!

 

Why do some Hikes take longer than others?

Even the same trail can take longer some days!

We hiked Ross Prairie State Park over the weekend and was amazed to see the Yellow Jessamine in bloom!

Our seasons seem to all run together and we’ve seen lots of Fall colored leaves this winter too.

So I chose a few pics from our #1 Hike at Blue Run Park and others from our #2 Hike at Ross Prairie to create my mosiacs today.

You didn’t do very good with the last quiz I gave you HERE. So maybe this time you would like to ‘guess’ the reason some hikes take longer! hahaha!

Oh and can you find the banana tree?

And just a little Florida trivia..

we finished at around 3 pm in the afternoon and I took a quick pic of the time and temp (83).

I’m joining Mosaic Monday HERE.

The Ibis and Great Egret!

I promised you the other photos from our hike at Blue Run Park last week.

We had walked up to a marshy area to see these Ibis

when a Great Egret came into view.

We’ve noticed that ‘everyone’ seems to be getting along well lately!

A few pics of them in the clam bed that they were sharing with the Limpkins (so to speak).

(hopefully you saw the Limpkins last Saturday)

We’ve seen so many beautiful birds this winter here in Florida!

(some a little camera shy!)

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

and I’d Rather B Birdin’.

Chicken Pot Pie and Pinwheels!

It’s actually been cold enough lately to use the oven here in Florida!

So I made a Chicken Pot Pie! One of my favorite dishes (that I NEVER make! lol).

I had cooked a roast chicken in the oven a few days before, with potatoes, carrots, celery and onion. (I’ll give you that recipe another time) So I had good ingredients to put in the pie.

I made a white sauce, butter, flour a little salt and pepper and milk and added the chicken and chopped up veggies. I wanted even more veggies, so I cooked a few mixed vegetables in a bowl in the microwave for a couple of minutes and added them too.

I made a pie crust recipe and used 3 cups of flour to have enough for hubby to make pinwheels. I divided my dough in thirds. I’ve made a lot of pie crusts over the years and my secret for flaky crust is…don’t overwork your dough. Add just enough cold water to the flour and shortening mixture and don’t keep ‘beating’ it!

(put a ‘little’ butter on top)

Put bottom crust in large pie plate, warm veggies and chicken then cover with top crust. Cut slits in the top for steam to escape. And I put a piece of foil under the pie plate just in case.

Serve hot!

I froze some of mine for another cold day.

Roll out the other dough…

so that hubby can make pinwheels with lots of butter, cinnamon and sugar!

(notice that sugar canister is just a BLUR!)

He baked them at 375 for 20 minutes in the toaster oven.

He didn’t need to freeze any of his! haha!

We cooked together and had fun so…

I’m joining Thankful Thursdays today!

Snowmen in Florida!

Snowmen? In FLORIDA?

 

Yes, I left a few out to enjoy this month.

We don’t actually get snow this far South but I know many of you are dealing with snow and bitter cold temps right now! Stay warm and safe!

PEACE!

I went to Dillard’s to see what they had left in clearance and found 2 of these beautiful plates, Made in Portugal. (and I REALLY needed them! haha)

I’m joining Mosaic Monday HERE.

The Elusive Limpkin

How many birds and animals do we miss in the wild because they are so perfectly camoflauged?

I know we miss a lot when we hike Blue Run Park in Dunnellon.

(some we should probably be glad that we don’t see!)

We were finishing up a hike when we stopped to see 2 Ibis in a marshy area near the trail. (I’ll save those pics for another post!)

And when I walked…S L O W L Y…to get a better look (AND photo!)

a limpkin came into view.

 

He had his prize and he was making a run with it.

I thought it was a fish until I looked at the photos and realized it was a freshwater clam or mussel!

Hubby stayed back and told me to look again and there was a second limpkin that I hadn’t seen!

We rarely see a limpkin and on this hike we saw two! And we’ve never noticed the clam bed!

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

and I’d Rather B Birdin’.

Books and Kindness

I didn’t have to think very long to come up with a word I want to focus on this year…

Kindness !

My blog friend at Winds of Life has a snowy bird in her banner so I tried to make one. Not sure I can figure out how to put a gif in my banner but it looks neat, doesn’t it?

I try to be thoughtful to others but I know there is always ‘room for improvement’ so I choose kindness for my word this year.

I had another post in draft but it was negative so I decided to feature some books I’ll be reading this year. (We had an example of ‘unkindness’ last month that I was going to write about but you know…it’s not worth mentioning.)

Everyone that reads my blog knows I love books. My sister was sweet to send me a Daily Devotional book by Beth Moore. (a FAVORITE author!)

At around the same time, I found another similar book that has a daily prayer by Beth Moore.

So every day, I’m going to take the time to read these and focus on kindness this year.

My blog friend from Life is Good shared this quote,

"If someone were to pay you 10 cents for every kind word you said about people and collect 5 cents for every unkind word, would be you be rich or poor?"

Author unknown, quoted by Jacob M Braude

Have you chosen a word for this year or made any New Year’s resolutions?

I’m joining Thankful Thursdays today!

Are you good with numbers? A Quiz at the end!!!

How many birds did we see this year?

I can answer that!

A LOT! heehee!

I took just a few photos to make some mosaics to share.

And as I looked back over the year, I chose my favorite!

This Night Heron was spotted at Blue Run Park in Dunnellon, FL by our grandson, D and it was a favorite sighting!

AND the only time we’ve seen one!

We did see this heron on another hike and think it is a Juvenile Night Heron!

So here’s the QUIZ!

Here goes…

I read 83 books this year and we hiked 53 hikes. When you add those together, you get my weight.

I told that to hubby and he said hhhmmmm…let’s see… if you take the number of books and subtract the number of hikes, you get your IQ.

So how much do I weigh and what’s my IQ ?

And if you answer either one of those questions…

I’ll take you OFF my blog list!  

hahahahahaha!!!

I’m joining Mosaic Monday HERE.